After being forcibly shut down by Chase, there’s a decent chance you’ll end up in the “little black room,” meaning you won’t be able to apply for Chase cards for some period of time and your applications will be automatically denied. How long that lasts seems to vary by person: some say 3 years, others say 7 years. Sometimes, even after an application is approved, Chase later decides something is off and shuts the account down anyway. But today, our king of shutdowns achieved the astonishing feat of being shut down three times, reopening three times, and then getting shut down again.

  • In the first half of 2016, his wife’s Chase cards were forcibly shut down by Chase because of issues related to him.
  • In summer 2019, his wife successfully opened a Chase Starbucks card, but it was shut down after a while.
  • In November 2019, his wife successfully opened a Chase Ink Preferred with a $21,000 credit limit. After spending for three months, she received the 80,000-point welcome bonus.
  • In March 2020, after completing another portion of the spending requirement, the account was shut down after the statement came out.
  • In June 2021, she received an invitation letter from Chase for Freedom Unlimted, but did not apply for it and chose to open a Sapphire Preferred instead — successfully approved!
  • In August 2021, she completed two months of minimum spending, 3,000+1,000. She even forgot to make the first payment on time, but later caught up. After a while, she received a letter saying the account was being shut down. The stated reason was that she had previously had Chase credit card, investment, and savings accounts shut down. Fortunately, the welcome bonus had already posted and been transferred out.

You have to admit, this person is really something — incredibly persistent. The main reason this kind of in-and-out situation happens is that the bank’s marketing department (which tries to lure you into applying), underwriting/card approval department (which approves applications), and risk control department (which handles shutdowns) do not have fully connected systems. So even if you successfully open a card, it can still get shut down later.

And if you really want to experience this for yourself, my advice is: if you do manage to get back in, keep a low profile. Pay on time, don’t make any single purchase too large, meet the spending requirement quickly through normal spending, and move the welcome bonus out promptly. Because if you show high-risk behavior, there’s a good chance the risk control team will investigate. If they discover you’re actually still in the little black room or otherwise on bad terms with Chase, they may just cut you off immediately.